


Unbounded

by Rainyhart



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, M/M, Pedophilia, Underage - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 22:17:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12691284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainyhart/pseuds/Rainyhart
Summary: Second grade isn't easy with a student like Carl Grimes.





	Unbounded

It’s in August that Negan can’t believe his luck when he’s handed the delicate gift of Carl Grimes in his second grade class. A tiny pale bundle of quiet mysterious wonder the second he finds his new desk to neatly settle his things in. The first day brings a boy with a yellow shirt that drifts over his body and overlaps his blue jeans, so bright it makes his eyes pop their magnificent matching color of topaz, set atop a defining dust of freckles along his nose, yet another detail unable to go ignored. 

Within the first few months personality begins to show, a nervous tuck of his dark hair behind his ear when asking a question, a soft smile in the early fall when he receives an A+ on a class quiz, excitement on the class field trip to the pumpkin patch in October where he gets to pick a pumpkin for free, laughing and chatting with his friends about the best pick and their Halloween costumes to come.

Negan’s not sure why he’s surprised that while his friends say ghosts and devils, Carl says: a mom- and leaves it at that. 

That day is filled with questions and concerns from every parent and teacher under the roof of their elementary, confusion at full force over the seven year old boy with a baby doll in each hand and an apron tied neatly around his waist. When Negan asks him who the father is Carl says:

“You can be Mr. Negan,” and when Negan doesn’t come to teach the following day everyone assumes he caught a bug. 

Come November and Negan finds it hard for him to concentrate when his class prepares for Thanksgiving with crafts and Carl draws himself at the table with Negan, sharing their feast together instead of blood related family. No explanation is needed when everyone shares about their families and Carl shrugs his pink over-sized sweater covered shoulders to say he watched wheel of fortune with a can of pumpkin filling until he fell asleep in front of the tv. 

It’s not hard to dislike Rick Grimes. When parent/teacher conferences come around and Negan gushes about the many things Carl is excelling in; Gym (Not the way he breezes ahead of his classmates to the finish line, a self satisfied smirk at the triumph of getting there first, back arched and breathless as he looks back at this accomplishment.), Art (Not the concentrated wrinkle of his nose when he paints, splotches of purple on his face in the midst of creating his masterpiece.), Socializing (Not the way his lashes flutter so lazy and gentle when he talks with his friends in class or on the playground. Poised with such confidence at his age over anything he put his mind to so much that he almost wants to shout to Carl’s father right here and now that he loves his son. Furiously, endlessly.), he’s met with only a list of complaints and excuses, the meeting cut short an entire fifteen minutes when the man tugs Carl up from beside him and rushes out the door. 

Still the school year continues with winter blowing in, Carl among the other kids out once or twice with an illness leading up to Christmas break, always returning eager to learn and bright as ever. The break hits and Negan’s world goes dark for two weeks, all he has to go off being the list Carl wrote up, left ungraded on the stack of homework assignments he has yet to go through. It goes from things as simple as a baseball to a thing as complicated as a mom, neatly printed into the individual lines on a piece of notebook paper, and Negan wishes and wishes but a wish can only do so much.

Soon after comes spring, dresses and pastels and sandals galore, Carl two months from graduating his class and much too tall, limbs stretching longer as he nears the year of eight, surrounded by friends in the fresh growing grass of the yard with a flower crown of wild flowers upon his head. There’s an ease about him as he lay on the grass, and Negan aches so much it’s getting hard to sleep at night in more ways than one because he never took letting go quite as serious until now. 

On the last day of school Carl is glowing. Early June and all smiles throughout the day of giving out phone numbers and participating in relays. For a part of it Negan cries his way through packing up his classroom, eyes blinded from tears over the loss of one of the best things he had been given the privilege of experiencing. Boundless love and courage and hope in the form of a child Negan never would have thought could have existed if he hadn’t met him nine months ago almost exactly. 

When the buses pull up Negan almost leaves, broken on the spot at the avalanche of children waving goodbye or saying see you next year, but then he sees Carl and he’s glued to the pavement when he’s approached for his number. 

“To talk over summer.” Carl smiles, and Negan scribbles in the yearbook so fast he’s not sure if _he_ can even read it himself.

“Of course,” Negan ends up saying, “Have a good summer Carl.”

“I will Mr. Negan, and you too! Until next year!”

“Yeah.” Negan says, but he doesn’t mention not applying to teach again next year.


End file.
